Despite hurdles, food entrepreneurs persist

Whether it’s Mattie Pearl’s original barbecue sauce, the proceeds from which will be used to support youth programs in a distressed Tulsa community, or Tim Ferrell’s organic jams, made from fruit grown on his Brighton, Colo., farm, there’s no shortage of food entrepreneurs eager to put their name on common products like spreads and salsas.

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By Candace KrebsContributing Writer

LA Junta Tribune - La Junta, CO

By Candace KrebsContributing Writer

Posted Apr. 20, 2013 at 11:00 AM

By Candace KrebsContributing Writer

Posted Apr. 20, 2013 at 11:00 AM

OKLAHOMA CITY — Whether it’s Mattie Pearl’s original barbecue sauce, the proceeds from which will be used to support youth programs in a distressed Tulsa community, or Tim Ferrell’s organic jams, made from fruit grown on his Brighton, Colo., farm, there’s no shortage of food entrepreneurs eager to put their name on common products like spreads and salsas.

“There are a lot of good barbecue sauces out there, but everybody has a different taste,” said Mattie Bledsoe-Hayes, a Tulsa restaurant operator participating in a Made in Oklahoma display at the Oklahoma State Capitol. “And by doing this, I’m bringing hope to a community that really needs it.”

At a table nearby, Susan Witt of Oklahoma City was handing out samples of fresh salsa she called Ace in the Bowl. “It’s an olive oil-based salsa, which makes it a little different,” she said. “The olive oil really brings out all of the flavors, and it gets a big thumbs-up from the nutritionists.”

In Colorado, Wendy White, a marketing specialist with the State Department of Agriculture, works with hundreds of small food companies eager to make their mark.

“It’s definitely still growing,” she said of the interest level. “We get calls daily.”

Direct marketers need help sorting through everything from low-cost marketing strategies to retail vending requirements to food safety regulations, which is always one of the biggest hurdles.

It’s been two years since Congress passed a massive new food safety overhaul, allowing some of the smallest producers an exemption but potentially raising the bar for others.

“The concern is, you know, basically, what are the rules of the game? Are they being changed?” said Ferrell, owner of Berry Patch Farms located northeast of Denver. “We get confused. What do we have to do?”

Ferrell recently hosted a food safety field day with about 35 area growers and public health officials. Among the experts in attendance was Colorado State University ag and business management specialist Martha Sullins, a key point-person in helping growers and processors understand and respond to a “quickly changing landscape” of federal, state and local requirements.

Sullins was also scheduled to speak to aspiring food entrepreneurs later the same week at the annual Food Marketing Workshop held in Aurora and put on by the Colorado Department of Agriculture.

Passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, coupled with varied resources and implementation at the local level, creates a food safety maze that Sullins described as “crazy-making.”

“It’s hard to be a farmer nowadays,” she said from her office in Fort Collins. “There’s a lot more scrutiny coming from a lot more eyes.”

Page 2 of 2 - Some farmers are now choosing which crops to grow, based not on consumer demand or their own production capabilities but on whether they can afford to comply with the regulations, she said. Higher risk foods — those typically eaten raw, including melons, tomatoes and fresh greens — have stricter handling protocols than lower risk root vegetables like beets and potatoes, she said.

The new food safety law now moving slowly through the lengthy rule-making process has already generated thousands of pages of dense regulatory language. Public comments will continue to be accepted through May. In addition, many market outlets now require GAP, which stands for Good Agricultural Practices, or other auditing assessments of on-farm production practices. Meanwhile, the state of Colorado is updating its own retail food law, which creates another complication. Local resources and interpretations can vary as well.

While making sense of it all can be daunting, new food businesses continue to sprout. White said many first-time companies were signed up for the Food Marketing Workshop in mid-April. And the experts seem committed to making sure these newcomers have a shot at long-term success.

Mullins helped develop the COFarmtoMarket.com website, an invaluable tool for helping growers and small food processors “navigate the road from farm to market” with both raw and value-added food products.

That kind of outreach is winning over growers and food processors who initially felt intimidated and overwhelmed.

“I’m more optimistic than I was a year ago,” Ferrell reflected. “The state is basically telling us, do the best you can do to keep your product safe. It’s a cooperative effort. That’s what I’m sensing.”